Electrical relay and contact arrangement therefor



April 2, 1968 3,376,526

ELECTRICAL RELAY AND CONTACT ARRANGEMENT THEREFOR J. FISCHER ETAL 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 v Original Filed May 28, 1.962

April 2, 1968 v J. H cHER A 3,376,526

ELECTRICAL RELAY AND CONTACT ARRANGEMENT THEREFOR Original Filed May 28, 1962 2 Sheets-Sheet z 1/ Z 11. z 4 4 g 61s 10\ a a? m; /f H 5 I g I 2 ,5 III I 1 I I II. n1 A I II! I United States Patent fiie 3,376,526 Patented Apr. 2, 1968 3,376,526 ELECTRICAL RELAY AND CONTAC ARRANGEMENT THEREFOR Josef Fischer, Herbert Krautwald, and Wolfgang Hiihner,

Munich, Germany, assignors to Siemens Aktiengesellschaft, a corporation of Germany Continuation of application Ser. No. 197,997, May 28, 1962. This application Jan. 23, 1967, Ser. No. 622,846 1 Claim. (Cl. 335-197) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An electrical contact structure, utilizing rigid contact carriers, each anchored at one end and in a supporting plate and having one end of a resilient contact spring secured to and supported by the free end of the carrier, the latter being capable of adjusting deformation, to enable disposition and adjustment of the spring pressure of contacts at the free end of such spring with one or more stationary contacts disposed adjacent the supporting plate.

This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 197,997, filed May 28, 1962, now abandoned.

The invention disclosed herein is concerned with an electrical switching device of the relay type and with a novel contact arrangement therefor.

The current conducting parts, especially the individual contact springs of contact sets are, in known contact arrangements such as are as a rule provided for relays, arranged in a stack comprising plate members made of insulating material which separate the individual contact springs electrically. Contact sets or arrangements of this kind, calling for many individual contact springs require a relatively large number of insulating plates, supporting plates and fastening parts. The assembly of these parts requires a given minimum time which cannot be reduced.

It is moreover necessary, in view of the thickness tolerances which are in such a stack additive, to carry out adjustments after completion of the assembly of any contact arrangement of this kind. Both facts, namely, the relatively large number of individual parts which entail not only great expenditure but also prolonged assembly times, and the necessity of carrying out adjustments after completing an assembly, are a handicap in the rational fabrication of relays having such contact sets. This situation creates the problem of providing contact sets comprising as few individual parts as possible and which can be produced with a minimum amount of adjustment work.

According to the present invention, this problem can be solved by using, as an insulating mounting for the contact elements, a single plate 1 made of insulating material which is common to the current conducting parts, inserting into such plate, perpendicularly to the plane thereof, the stationary contact springs or carriers for the stationary contact members as well as the carriers for the movable contact springs, and employing for the operative actuation of the contact arrangement a release or actuating element which is movable in a plane extending in parallel with the plane of the insulating plate, preferably a comb-like member made of insulating material, such member acting respectively in a contact-opening or contact-closing sense upon a switching spring which carries the movable contact element.

According to another feature of the invention, a plurality of contact sets are combined to form a unitary assembly. The insulating plate which is common to all current-conducting parts may also be used for carrying the relay coil and parts associated therewith for the operative actuation of the contact sets. Depending upon existing requirements, the terminals of the contact arrangements may be formed either as plug-in terminals or as soldering tabs.

Further details of the invetnion will appear from the description which is rendered below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 shows in part sectional representation the contact set or arrangement according to the invention;

FIG. 2 indicates a plurality of contact sets combined to form a unitary assembly; and

FIG. 3 represents in part sectional view a plug-in relay employing the features of the invention.

Like parts are identically referenced throughout the figures.

The contact set shown in FIG. 1 is a break-before-make contact which is mounted upon an insulating plate 1. The plate 1 may be a punched or molded part and the stationary contact springs 2 and 3 having the contact points 4 and 5 as well as the carrier 8 for the movable contact spring 11 having the contact points 12 may be suitably fastened in the plate 1 by pressure fit, such springs and carrier being if desired suitably crimped or notched. Accordingly, the electrical break-make contact is formed by the two stationary contact points 4 and 5 in cooperation with the movable contact points 12. The movable contact points 12 are fastened on a spring 11 which is mounted at 10 on the carrier 8. The carrier 8 is angularly shaped so as to dispose the adjacent end of the spring 11 at an angle with respect to the free end thereof, thereby arching the spring to pretension the same and impart to the movable contact points 12 a desired normal contact pressure. A comb-like member 13 is provided for operatively actuating the contact set, such member 13 acting directly on the spring 11.

The advantages of the invetnion will clearly appear upon considering FIG. 2, showing a plurality of contact sets combined in a unitary assembly which is mounted upon a common insulating plate 1. The contact points have been omitted to simplify the drawing, it being of course understood that it is in some situations entirely possible to use the springs directly for the contact making operations. The embodiment shown in FIG. 2 comprises six break-make contacts such as they are frequently required in customary relay sets. The usual stacked arrangement of contact springs which require relatively many individual parts including a plurality of insulating plates, is according to the invention replaced by a single insulating plate 1 on which are mounted the contact springs and the carriers for the movable spring, in the manner described before with reference to the contact as shown in FIG. 1. The structure necessarily involves only slight tolerances, thus entirely eliminating the contact adjustment operations which are required in relays of customary construction after completion of the assembly of the contact sets. Simple mechanized fabrication involving relatively few working steps is accordingly possible. Alteration of the normal contact pressure merely requires simple bending adjustment of the respective carrier 8, as previously described.

FIG. 3 illustrates a relay equipped with contact sets or arrangements made according to the invention and described with reference to FIG. 2. Numeral 14 indicates the armature from which extends the arm 15 and numeral 16 indicates the relay coil, these parts being secured on the insulating plate 1 by means of the yoke. Numeral 13 indicates a comb-like member which may be made of insulating material and connected with the arm 15 of the armature for operatively actuating the movable contact spring 11 responsive to attraction of the armature 14, the comb-like member moving thereby in a plane extending in parallel with the insulating plate 1. There may be provided six break-make contact sets arranged in two rows, as illustrated in FIG. 2, only the contact sets which 3 are frontally positioned in the two rows being shown in FIG. 3.

The relay may be of the plug-in type and the current conducting parts of the contact springs 2, 3 and 8 of the respective contact sets are accordingly provided with plugin terminals indicated at 6, 7 and 9. The actuating comb 13 simultaneously actuates all six springs 11 responsive to displacement thereof by the armature arm 15.

It is in the mechanized fiabrication of the relay easily possible to adjust all springs 11 in common to produce a desired normal contact pressure, simply by placing the part of the carrier spring 8 in desired angular position, which can be done after completion of the assembly operations. Suitable gauge or templet means may be used for positioning the terminals 6, 7, 9 for the respective spring sets and those for the energizing coil 16, thereby likewise resulting in advantageous benefitting the fabrication process.

Changes may be made within the scope and spirit of the appended claim which defines what is believed to be new and desired to have protected by Letters Patent.

We claim:

1. A contact arrangement for an electrical relay and the like, comprising a single insulating plate, at least one contact set, comprising a pair of relatively rigid contact carriers rigidly anchored insaid plate, each having one end thereof extending outwardly from one face of said plate, perpendicularly to the plane thereof, a stationary contact carried by each carrier adjacent said plate, with said contacts disposed in opposed relation, a movable contact disposed in operative relation between said stationary contacts for cooperative engagement therewith, a carrier for said movable contact, comprising a first member immovably anchored in said plate adjacent one of said stationary contact carriers and with the free end thereof extending outwardly from said plate beyond said stationary contacts, said first member being substantially rectangular in cross section having four substantially planar opposed faces two of which are broader than the other two, a rectangular cross section elongated spring member having four substantially planar opposed faces two of which are broader than the other two, said first member being relatively thicker in cross section and relatively more rigid than said spring member having one end rigidly attached to and carried by the free end of said movable con-tact carrier, the other end of said spring member being disposed between the carriers for saidstationlary contacts with said movable contact being rigidly. connected to and carried by the free end of said spring member, said first member and said spring member being rigidly attached in pl a-nar-face-to-pllanar-face mating engagement of one of the respective broader faces of each member, the free end of the movable contact carrier being disposed to arch and pretension said spring member whereby said movable contact is biased into engagement with one of said stationary contacts, said movable contact carrier being informable, by the application of adjusting pressures thereto, from one set position to another set position, whereby the arching of said spring member may be varied, an electromagnet system having an exciter coil and a cooperable armature actuatable thereby, and an actuating member operatively connected to said armature arranged for movement adjacent and transversely to the free end of said spring member, said actuating member being engageable in one direction of its movement with said spring member adjacent the free end thereof operative tomove such end and the contact carrier thereby, in opposition to the biasing forces thereon, out of engagement with the one stationary contact and into engagement with the other stationary contact.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,076,063 1/1963 Prace et al. 200166 3,142,735 7/1964 Diciolla 335124 3,163,740 12/1964 Ross 200166 3,211,874 10/1965 Bengtsson 200166 BERNARD A. GILHEANY, Primary Examiner.

R. N. ENVALL, 1a., Assistant Examiner. 

